Flashback Springfield: Community rallies to aid victims of fire

Monday

Dec 23, 2013 at 4:32 PM

Rich Saal Photo Editor @RichSaal

This is our weekly look back at a newspaper page from a year gone by from The State Journal-Register or one of its predecessors, the Illinois State Journal and Illinois State Register. See a close-up image of today's featured page by opening this PDF. See more historic pages on our Flashback Springfield website.

Alice Moore had just begun to scrub the floor in her apartment. It was early evening just two days before Christmas 1920, and she was at home with her daughters, Alyce and Grace. She also was watching two babies for neighbors who had gone downtown to do some last-minute shopping.

Before she had smelled smoke or heard anything unusual, she looked down the hall from the kitchen to see curtains in the living room on fire. She called to Alyce and calmly told her to get her hat and coat on and to help Grace get hers on, too. "We got to get out of here; the house is on fire," she told her daughter.

Moore rolled the two babies in a blanket and she and the girls ran down the stairs to the street. Like the 200 other people who lived in the adjoining apartments of the Diller-Roosa complex, they made it out with only the clothing they wore. Standing in the frigid winter air, they watched as flames consumed their homes. Several injuries were reported, but no one was killed.

Alice Moore's recollections of one of the most spectacular fires in Springfield were recorded in 1989 for an oral history project at then-Sangamon State University. She was 98 years old.

The harrowing ordeal and the condition of hundreds of suddenly homeless people would have been an overwhelming situation for the community.

It was also the beginning of a beautiful story of people opening their homes and their hearts to help strangers in need.

The Diller-Roosa complex was a combination of buildings at 104-110 E. Washington St. that housed a plumbing and heating business, grocery store, offices of a farm implement company and apartments. The fire is believed to have started in the basement of the plumbing business when a carelessly discarded cigar or cigarette ignited insulation wrapped around pipes. Fire in the wood frame buildings spread almost instantly.

It didn't take long for people to race to the scene.

"Charitably inclined persons who gathered at the scene … turned their attention to the suffering families," The Illinois State Journal reported. "Standing in the nearby streets were children suffering from the zero weather. Sturdy men and willing women took off their overcoats and cloaks, wrapped them about the shivering forms of the little ones and hurried them to nearby homes."

One block to the east, downwind from the fire, people volunteered to help move 25 vehicles and wagons to safety from inside the Gietl Brothers carriage business. It was feared that the fire could spread that far.

People who lived near the apartment opened their doors for fire victims.

Dr. Charles Virden canvassed every house within two blocks and determined every one of the homeless had found temporary care for the night, the Journal reported.

In one home, a family took in 10 people who sought refuge. The state arsenal would be set up the following day as a place for victims to go.

Along with coverage of the fire, the next day's edition of the Journal included a page one appeal to the community for help in caring for the victims. The newspaperoffered to collect donations, which would be turned over to local organizations that could provide aid.

"Scarcely had the sun appeared over the eastern horizon when men, women and children flocked to the Journal office with bundles of clothing and cash donations," it reported. The paper announced it would remain open all day on Christmas, a Saturday,to accept additional contributions.

In just a few days, about $5,000 was collected along with clothing and other material. The paper published the names of those who contributed. It included a boy who brought in $1.50 in pennies he had saved to buy Christmas treats. On Christmas Day, city residents invited fire victims into their homes for dinner.

"Guests of kin and friends, men, women and children who were left homeless by the fire which consumed the Diller-Roosa apartment buildings Thursday night, enjoyed a merry Christmas,” the paper said. “They were guests at Christmas dinner, and the little ones were remembered with toys and other gifts with which they whiled away the hours.”

The dinners and cash contributions were not the end of the community’s outpouring of support. Throughout the following year, it responded with offers of housing and furniture and by Christmas 1921, the Journal reported that each of the displaced families was back on its feet.

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